Corbett: Penn State Misstepped in Responding to Proposed Cuts

UPDATED @ 2:44 p.m. Friday: Appearing Friday on KDKA radio in Pittsburgh, Gov. Tom Corbett also said he’s ‘stunned’ by the Penn State response to his budget proposal.

‘I can’t tell you how stunned I am by the reaction particularly from State College,’ Corbett said in a 15-minute conversation with Marty Griffin. ‘The first thing they said is, this (means) tuition increases.’

Corbett went on to say that Penn State has received $3.5 billion in state money in the past 10 years. During the same period, tuition rates grew 110 percent, he said.

‘They cannot argue that the money would prevent them from tuition increases because when they got the money, they continued to increase tuitions,’ Corbett said. ‘That was stunning that they would scare the children and parents of Pennsylvania’ this week.

Asked about Corbett’s KDKA interview, Penn State spokeswoman Lisa Powers said she thought Spanier ‘was very clear (on Wednesday) that we do not intend to put this burden’ entirely on students and their families.

If the state-funding cut comes to pass, it will prompt tuition increases, university officials have said. But they’ve also said they will work to minimize the impact on tuition rates by cutting back on university expenses, including those for personnel, programming and facilities.

‘We do not plan to put that (solely) on the shoulders of families,’ Powers said. ‘And we plan to fight this (proposed cut) vigorously.’

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Earlier report, posted @ 1:01 p.m. Friday:

Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett said Penn State made a mistake with its initial reaction to his proposed higher-education funding cuts.

‘To believe that the people of Pennsylvania should have to make up that (funding) difference right away, without (the university) first trying to show and demonstrate that they are going to reduce their costs and (find) cost savings, and to throw it on the backs of the students — the first place they can think of, on the backs of the students: I think that was a mistake,’ Corbett said Thursday in Cambria County.

His remarks were captured by WJAC, the Johnstown-based NBC affiliate. The station covered Corbett’s visit to a Galliker’s Dairy in Richland Township, where the governor made his comments at a press briefing.

According to WJAC, Corbett also said he does not believe that education should be ‘recession-proof.’ The governor has called for shared sacrifice, no new taxes and fiscal responsibility as the state faces a $4 billion budget gap.

His Thursday comments appear to be Corbett’s first public response to Penn State President Graham Spanier’s 55-minute press event Wednesday. Spanier said there that Corbett’s budget proposal, introduced Tuesday, would signal ‘near-total abandonment’ of state support for public higher education in Pennsylvania.

The Corbett proposal, if approved by the state legislature, would mean dramatic changes at Penn State, Spanier said. He said the university may be forced to close some Commonwealth Campuses and would certainly be forced to cut staffing, increase tuition rates and reduce educational and public-service programming.

Spanier said the university would attempt to minimize the impact on tuition rates by substantially slimming its expenses. But if Penn State were to ask students to shoulder the entire burden of the proposed funding cut, they could see a tuition increase of about 30 percent in the fall, according to informed university sources.

A tuition scenario that severe, however, seems unlikely — given Spanier’s public pledge to mitigate the potential impact on students.

The Corbett proposal would eliminate about half the state’s funding for higher education, taking about $182 million in annual funding away from Penn State, according to the university. That would amount to roughly four percent of the total Penn State budget, but it’s money that is concentrated heavily in the university’s educational and public-service operations, Spanier has said.

He and other university leaders are expected to argue their case for higher-education funding this month in state House and Senate hearings. The Senate Appropriations Committee hearing for state-related universities, formerly scheduled for March 28, has been pushed up to 1 p.m. Wednesday in Harrisburg. The House Appropriations Committee hearing on the matter remains scheduled for March 28.

Also this month, the Penn State trustees are expected to gather for their bimonthly meeting. They will meet March 18 at the New York Helmsley Hotel in Manhattan. Discussions are anticipated to focus in part on the state-funding situation.

Earlier coverage

• VIDEO: Spanier Delivers Penn State Response to Corbett Proposal (March 10, 2011)

• Corman: Lawmakers Need to Hear Corbett’s Vision for Higher Education (March 9, 2011)

• Spanier to Answer ‘Proposed Catastrophic Cuts’ in Penn State Funding (March 8, 2011)

• Corbett Budget Proposes Deep Cut in Penn State Funding (March 8, 2011)

• Jay Paterno’s Case for a Private Penn State (March 10, 2011)